Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum Ex

ITS BEEN A WHILE since Creative released their Sound Blaster LIVE! family of soundcards, but their new line called AUDIGY is a completely different thing. The card is based on a new chip called Audigy, which, claimed Creative, is four times as powerful as theSound Blaster Live!

With onboard 24 - bit ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) and DAC (Digital-to Analog Converter) the card delivers high definition sound with 96 kHz SPDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface). It comes with EAX ADVANCED HD technology for gaming and music.

The chip itself was in development for over two years, and you can see (actually, hear) the difference, with chip's 32-bit professional-quality effect engine (DSP). It is capable of processing, mixing and positioning audio streams using up to 131 available hardware channels. Audigy also sports a 32-bit digital mixer with 64 hardware channels, which maintains all sound mixing in the digital domain, eliminating possible additional noise from the signal.

Audigy Platinum Ex is optimized for ASIO low - latency support, DirectSound 3D audio acceleration, Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding, and OpenAL acceleration. With it's HD (high-definition DSP) audio quality it is capable of playback of 64 audio channels, each with is own independent sample rate. Audigy can do 24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs at 48kHz sample rate, and 24-bit Digital-to Analog conversion of digital sources also at 48kHz to analog 5.1 speaker output. Only S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) format can do the magical 24-bit/96kHz quality, either on input or output signals.

The recording can only be done with 16-bit resolution and sampling rates of 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz. The card has low latency ASIO (Audio System Input Output) support, which means that you can use the multitrack applications like Cubase, Logic Audio or Cakewalk, Sonar, etc… very easily. But if you decide to use ASIO you'll be forced to use card recording capabilities only at 48 kHz!

Connectors

The card itself has 3 pieces, the mainboard, the extension board and the Audigy external drive. On-board connectors are:

Analog / Digital Out (Analog Center & Subwoofer / 6-channel SPDIF Output)
Line In
Microphone In
Line level out (for front pair of speakers) / Headphone out
Line level out (for rear pair of speakers)
SB1394 port (Firewire)
Telephone Answering device in (TAD)
Analog CD Audio in
Digital CD Audio in
Expansion header to an external 15-pin Jostick / MIDI port
Internal SB1394 header to Sound Blaster Audigy drive
Expansion header to the Sound Blaster Audigy Drive

Here is the picture with all connectors on the Audigy Drive

SB1394 connectivity

SB1394 is the Creative's implementation of the IEEE 1394 /Firewire) standard for high-speed digital connectivity. It offers peer-to-peer connection and connection of multimedia peripherals. It is very fast up to 400Mbs speeds are supported. As you know, you can chain up to 63 devices on a single serial bus. This feature gives you possibility connect various equipment that use IEEE 1394 technology like MP3 players, external hard drives, CD burners and Digital Camcorder.

Software

The Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX comes with a riche software bundle. Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum Ex comes bundled with : iM Networks INC.'s “iM Tuner” , the internet radio solution
MixMiester technology's “Mix Miester” 3.03
Arturia “Storm Platinum Edition”
Steinberg's “Cubasis VST Creative Edition” (which includes waveLab Lite and ReCycle Lite)
E-MU “SoundFont Collection”
E-MU “Sample Rate Converter”
Ulead “Video Studio” 4.0 SE Basic
Image Line's Fruity Loops - Creative Edition”
Sonic Foundry's “ACID DJ”

Audigy Advanced HD

The main feature on this card is the brand new DSP (Digital Signal Processing), with technology called Advanced HD (HD stands for High Definition). As the name says it is more advanced that it's predecessor EAX HD. New chip design made Audigy powerful as four times as the old SB Live! Cards. Of course you can expect more effects and more clarity and processing power. Audigy's Advanced HD technology consists of four modules: Audigy Input Module, Audigy Processing Module Eax Advanced HD Technology Core and Audigy Output Module.

The Audigy CODEC can process and record multiple analog sources at the same time. That feature is commonly used in professional audio cards with multitrack recording capabilities. By contrast, a typical AC-97 CODEC design allows only one analog source to be recorded at a time. With Audigy it is possible to record from various sources simultaneously, (using ASIO) for example from microphone and line-in. The CODEC improves overall audio quality of effect processing. If you want to have Dolby Digital or DTS on your digital set of speakers you'll have to disable AC-3 Decode option in Speaker settings, otherwise it will not work!

The Audigy processor has 64-channel mixer optimized for audio signal mixing and processing. It has a new 32-bit Multi-Effects Engine, which has the ability to render in real time up to 4 complex audio environments in parallel. Other sound processing modules can only render one audio environment at a one time That is the key of statement "powerfull as four times as…"

Gamers will surely enjoy the new EAX ADVANCED HD Game Audio Library. MultiEnvironment technology renders up to 4 simultaneously audio environments in real time. Environment Panning makes spatializing and localizing environments in 3D possible. Environment Reflections offers localization of early reflections and echoes. Environment Filtering simulates the propagation of sound in both open and closed environments. Environment Morphing allows smooth transitions from one environment to the next. But if you have in mind that some of the most popular games today like Quake 3 do not support EAX you'll find that little disappointing.

For audio enthusiasts, the Audio Clean-Up feature enables eliminating unwanted noise in a digital audio file. It is possible to remove noise or clicks and pop-ups from audio material in real-time.

Time Scaling allows you to speed up or slow down music without affecting its pitch or audio clarity. This comes handy when you want to capture the solos or lyrics of a song. It's possible to slows down from 30-50% which is enough for that purpose. This one is really handy feature.

Another feature called DREAM stands for “Dynamic Repositioning of Enhanced Audio & Music”. It creates an enhanced 3D surrounds sound from any stereo wave source. You can choose between low mid and high frequencies to spin around you in variety of ways. Audigy also supports Dolby Digital decoding for a 5.1 surround sound experience.

One of the Audigy's main adut is ability to deliver 24-bit multichannel audio output at 100dB SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio). That is done by using a quality 24-bit DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter). But 24-bit is only reserved for digital output only. When using an analog out you will get 16-bit sound!

Musicians' Benefits (ASIO, Sound FONT 2.1) As we mentioned above, recording with Audigy can only be done with 16-bit resolution and sampling rates of 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz. In fact, the recording analog-to-digital is done in 24-bit resolution and after is down mixed at 16-bit, and at the end is restored on 24-bit by the software. So, it is not the 24-bit resolution, but it is better than standard 16-bit recording, since it is done through the 24-bit converters.

Some Creative Live! cards lacked ASIO support. E-MU the manufacturer of Live!'s Emu10k1 audio chip, put on the market professional sound card known as Emu APS ( Audio Production Studio). That card was using the same chip as Creative's Live! series. That card had the ASIO driver that worked on 48kHz sampling rate and 16-bit resolution. With the driver you can go as low as 8ms of latency and use professional audio applications.

But Creative didn't put ASIO support on their drivers, so Soundblaster's users could only dream about professional audio support.

Now Creative added the ASIO support for all the rest of us. For the first time we have on consumer audio cards ASIO, which comes only with professional (expensive) audio equipment.

Using an ASIO driver, you can get (on this chip) as low as 2 milliseconds of audio latency. I managed Audigy to work smoothly on 5 ms latency. When I put it to 2 ms I experienced lots of crackles and distorted sound. The test machine was Athlon 1800+ with 256 Mb DDR memory and Epox 8KHA+ main board. I think if Creative add support for 96kHz sampling rate, then it maybe be possible to go as low as 2 ms.

But anything below 20 ms is good, and below 10 ms is great. So, the Audigy has great potential for professional use.

During the testing period we found a bug in ASIO driver which causes delay between audio and MIDI signal in Steinberg Cubase 5.1. Actually the audio starts immediately after pressing play button and Midi is delayed for about 2 seconds or two bars. We contacted Creative's support about this problem, and they respond quickly. They claimed that in cooperation with Steinberg they managed to isolate and solve the problem. Now we are expecting new drivers to come in short time and fix this bug.

SoundFont technology

Audigy has one handy feature which is great for musicians: great sampling capabilities and technology - the SoundFont technology.

SoundFont technology is the reason why even the old Live! series of cards found places in professional audio setups and professional studios. Audigy can replace even the most advanced ( and very expensive, too) samplers today. So if you need good sampler, but you can not afford it, the simplest choice is to buy an Audigy! Now the Audigy push the limit of 32Mb of loaded sound fonts in system RAM as it was on Live! Series.

Today, the professional standards has changed. The 48 kHz 16-bit recording capability isn't enough for today professional standards, while most of the professional cards has the ability to record on 96 kHz with 24-bit resolution. So if Creative did the Audigy with 24-bit/96kHz recording capabilities, than the Audigy Platinum EX can be stated as choice for professional musicians. Despite that, semi-professionals and audio enthusiasts will benefit from this card, cause it has ASIO, lots of connectivity options, great sound and known Creative's quality and support. Audigy also have support for AES-EBU gear with 24-bit SPDIF input/output support.

Conclusions

Audigy once again pushes the limits of a consumer audio, and came one step closer to professional standards. With this little monster you can turn your PC into multimedia station with support for 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, Firewire IEEE1394 support for digital cameras, audio players and lots of connectivity options for connecting almost anything from any audio source. Sometimes you can experience software instability. Creative released driver upgrade for Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and most of the problems that you can experience have been solved (like audio skipping).

Despite that minor problem, Audigy Platinum Ex is highly recommended for use, either for gamer or music enthusiastic or professionals. Gamers will benefit from new Eax Advanced HD for more realistic playing, musicians will enjoy the ASIO, SoundFont, and other options like real time effects (Fudo will benefit from the remote control!). So if you are planning to buy or upgrade your PC's sound system the Audigy can be highly recommended for that use. µ